A California homeowner received the shock of a lifetime upon discovering a massive bear had been residing beneath his house.
Sixty-three-year-old Kenneth Johnson began to suspect something unusual back in April when he noticed bricks were dislodged and the wooden frame covering his crawl space was damaged.
After observing further destruction, Johnson decided to set up a camera in June. It wasn’t until last week, however, that he unveiled the startling presence of a large brown bear that had made a home beneath his property.
“I have no idea how it managed to squeeze in there. It must be some kind of contortionist,” Johnson remarked to the Los Angeles Times, highlighting the mismatch between the bear’s enormous size and the crawl space’s limited dimensions.
“This creature is so large that its belly drags on the ground,” he added.
Video footage captured the bear as it emerged from the crawl space, marked by a yellow tag on its left ear, struggling to haul its massive frame onto the ground outside.
Johnson had been replacing the batteries on the camera down the side of his home when the beast growled at him from inside the crawl space on Friday.
‘I was shaking like a leaf for half an hour,’ he told the outlet. He promptly called the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, who directed him to the California Department of Fish & Wildlife.
Kenneth Johnson, 63, had grown suspicious after finding broken and torn pieces of his home around the crawl space in April before discovering the bear last week
Footage of the bear emerging from the space in the side of his home showed the beast, with a yellow tag in its left ear, struggling to pull itself out onto the ground
While Johnson doesn’t believe the bear poses him any harm, he said he’s staying well away from the side of his house
But he was told he needed to wait until Monday for a response due to the holiday weekend, CBS News reported.
‘It’s uncomfortable walking into the kitchen thinking there’s a bear over there,’ Johnson told the Times.
While Johnson doesn’t believe the bear poses him any harm, he said he’s keeping a clear distance. Even his cat Boo is terrified of the animal housed below his home.
The bear hasn’t shown any signs of aggression, and neighbors have even sighted the animal roaming around the area, Johnson told the outlet.
It often crawls out during the day, believed to be searching for food, and then returns at night, camera footage obtained by the outlet revealed.
Johnson said he was no stranger to wildlife around his home, and recalled his father discovering an eight-foot boa constrictor in a refrigerator in their garage.
‘We’re used to seeing wildlife in Altadena, but it’s changed because of drought and fire,’ he added.
After the Eaton fire in January, residents discovered a 500-pound bear nicknamed Yogi living underneath their home in Pasadena after it was forced from its habitat by the fire.
While Johnson doesn’t believe the bear poses him any harm, he said he’s keeping a clear distance. Johnson has the names Ursa and Barry in mind, depending on the sex of the animal
The bear often crawls out during the day, believed to be searching for food, and then returns at night
Johnson, awaiting the sex of the bear, said he has two potential names; Ursa or Barry.
The homeowner’s last sighting of the beat was at around 6am on Saturday but it ‘hasn’t left since.’
‘I feel okay with it,’ he said. ‘But I want him to get out.’
